Method and system for telephone wait user interface selection

ABSTRACT

In the method of the present invention, a customer of a service provider would be placed in hold while waiting to speak to a customer service representative. The method and system of the invention would recognize the telephone number of the caller using a “caller ID” system. If this call is the first time the caller has ever called, the caller would be presented with an audible listing of listening choices that would include but not be limited to the latest news, the weather (of the caller&#39;s location), financial headlines, or a selection of music stations (via cable radio, for example). The caller would then speak or type his/her preference into the keypad and the selection would be played. If the caller does not like the selection, the caller can then speak another selection or type the new selection as many times as the caller prefers. The caller selection is recorded in a caller preference database. Finally, when the same customer calls one or more additional times, the system would retain the caller&#39;s number and preferred listening selection, based on caller ID value. The listening selection would automatically be played on subsequent calls.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a telephone answering method and system thatentertains callers placed on hold and more particularly to a telephoneanswering method and system that identifies callers and provideslistening options from which a caller can choose while the caller iswaiting to complete a call. The present invention further relates tomethod and system for storing the caller's listening preference forfuture calls.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Telephone-based customer service plays an increasingly important rolefor organizations involved in activities requiring direct communicationwith customers. In order to serve a maximum number of callers, callcenters are typically designed to optimize call handling efficiency andtelephone attendant productivity.

An Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) is commonly utilized by call centersto enhance attendant productivity. An ACD allows a call center tocost-effectively handle a large number of calls by placing some of thecalls in a holding queue when no attendants are available to take thetelephone call. When a call is placed in the holding queue, a greetingmessage identifying the called party is typically played to the caller,indicating that the next available attendant will service the call.

Call queuing plays an important role in call center operations andprovides many advantages to the call center, including increasedattendant productivity, by minimizing idle time for the attendant,simultaneous handling of a greater number of calls during an increase incalls, and encouragement of callers to wait for an available attendant,as opposed to requiring the caller to attempt another call in responseto a busy signal.

In spite of the benefits to the call center, call queuing, however, isperceived by the customers as a waste of their time, and may result infrustration, abandoned calls, a loss of business, and poor customersatisfaction when the customer deems the holding time to be excessive.Thus, in order to distract the callers such that their focus is not onthe amount of time they are waiting in the queue, many call centersincorporate various activities to entertain callers waiting in a callqueue. For example, many call centers play music, news, weather oradvertising messages to the caller during the holding period. In thismanner, the caller may be entertained or informed of sales promotionsfor particular products or services. For example, U.S. Pat. No.5,444,774 to Friedes discloses an Interactive Queuing System For CallCenters and suggests that music or advertising messages may be played toa caller on hold.

Conventional systems for entertaining callers placed on hold by a callcenter do permit a caller to select a desired entertainment option. Thetechnology now exists where call centers can provide a caller with anumber of valuable entertainment options while the caller is on hold.This technology would enable an increase in caller satisfaction andtolerance of excessive hold times would increase.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,178,240 to Walker et al, provides a system forentertaining a caller placed in a queue of a call center. A method isdisclosed that allows the caller to access a plurality of entertainmentoptions while on hold. The entertainment options permit the caller to(i) place a call to a third party while on hold; or (ii) access one ormore premium entertainment services while on hold. A PBX/ACD receivesthe calls destined for the call center, and queues the calls when anappropriate attendant is not available. An IVRU prompts a caller forspecific information and forwards the collected information to thePBX/ACD. The IVRU provides the caller with a menu of availableentertainment options, which can be accessed, by the caller while thecaller is on hold. The PBX/ACD establishes a connection between thecaller and the selected entertainment service. The call is thentransferred to an available attendant with any data that may be requiredto process the call.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,400,804 provides an on-hold activity selection apparatusand method that allows an on-hold party to select an on-hold activity,from a menu of on-hold activities, with which to be entertained and/orinformed. The on-hold activity selection apparatus detects theoccurrence of an on-hold condition in a communication between a firstparty terminal and a second party terminal. In response to detecting theon-hold condition, the on-hold activity selection apparatus provides amenu of available on-hold activities to the terminal, which is placedon-hold. If a reply is received from the on-hold terminal identifying aselected on-hold activity, the on-hold activity selection apparatus thenprovides the on-hold terminal with the selected activity. The menu ofavailable on-hold activities may be based on profile information,corresponding to the on-hold terminal, stored in a database. The on-holdactivities may include listening to music, advertisements, sports, news,viewing television broadcasts, graphical presentations, prerecordedvideo messages, reading textual messages, playing video games, browsingthe Internet, and the like. The on-hold activities may include livefeeds and/or prerecorded activities.

Various other proposals have surfaced in the past for dealing with theon-hold problem. One proposal is for the receiving telephone system toprovide the caller with an estimated hold-time until an agent willanswer that call. While this information may be helpful where the waitwill be relatively short, a caller informed of a long wait might nothave the time to remain on the telephone for that long a period, and somay simply hang up in frustration and come away with the feeling ofbeing unimportant to the commercial concern.

Another proposal has been to provide the caller with the opportunity toschedule a return call from the commercial enterprise. Such a proposalis undesirable from a customer service perspective in that it fails torecognize that the timing of the initial call is already based on theconvenience of the caller. Any other time is likely not as convenientand thus represents a compromise; an unacceptable compromise in thosecases where the timeliness of the call is critical, such as for airlinescheduling and the like. Such a scheduled callback approach also raisesprivacy issues for those callers who prefer not to leave their nameand/or phone number merely to request information. At bottom, suchsystems may suggest to the caller that he should not have called when hedid, even though that was the time when the consumer was motivated, andable, to call.

Another system has been proposed in which the calling party has theability to interrupt the on-hold status of the receiving telephone toalert the nearby agent to return to the phone. Such a remote on-holdtermination system is of little value to consumers put on-holdautomatically upon receipt of their call, or where no agent is readilyavailable when alerted.

Almost everyone that has used a telephone has been put on hold. In theage of reduced customer service personnel, the “on hold” time can bequite lengthy. During this hold time, the caller is obliged to listen towhatever type of “on hold” music or chatter that has been chosen by thecalled company, and that choice can be grating or of marginal utility tothe caller. There remains a need for a method and system for selectingan audio user interface for telephone hold time and a mechanism forrecalling a user's preference, once such an interface has been chosen.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an objective of the present invention to provide a method andsystem of listening options for callers placed on hold during atelephone call.

It is a second objective of the present invention to provide a listeningoption to a caller based on the caller's previous preferences.

It is a third objective of the present invention to provide a databaseof caller identifications and the listening preferences of the callerwhen that particular caller is placed on hold.

It is a fourth objective of the present invention to provide at leasttwo methods of user selection of a particular listening option.

In the method of the present invention, a customer of a service providerwould be placed in a hold queue while waiting to speak to a customerservice representative. The method of the present invention wouldrecognize the telephone number of the caller using a “caller ID” system.If this happens to be the first time the customer has ever called in,the caller would be presented with an audible listing/menu of listeningchoices that would include but not be limited to the latest news, theweather (of the caller's location), financial headlines, or a selectionof music stations (via cable radio, for example). The caller would thenspeak or type his/her preference into the keypad and the selection wouldbe played for that caller. If the caller does not like the selection,the caller can then speak another selection or type the new selection asmany times as the caller prefers. Finally, when the same customer callsagain, the system would retain the caller's number and preferredlistening selection, based on caller ID value. The listening selectionwould automatically be played on subsequent calls.

In the implementation of the present invention, first, a customer callsa particular service provider and gets placed in a wait queue. A CallerID process identifies the number from which the call was made andreferences the caller's telephone number with the customer DB todetermine if this call is the first time the customer has called theservice provider. If so, the system will begin playing the preferredselection stored in the customer's DB. If this call is the first callfor a customer, then the customer is presented with several listeningoptions. Examples of listening options presented to the caller in thisinvention, include but are not limited to news headlines from commercialproviders, e.g., CNN; financial headlines received from Bloomberg orother such services; various musical selections from cable radio orother licensed outlets; and local weather forecasts based on the homeaddress of the customer as identified from the customer DB. Using awell-defined speech recognition system and/or a well-defined telephonetone ID system, the customer/caller makes a selection after listening tothe options on the telephone receiver. The customer can either speak thelistening option or press the appropriate button on the touch-tonetelephone to select the desired listening option.

Once the selection is made, it is played for the caller's listeningpleasure. At the same time, the selection is stored in the customer's DBto be used on subsequent calls to the service provider. Variousalgorithms could be used to determine the customer's listeningpreference based on frequency of selection or simply based on lastselection made on previous call. In addition, if the caller wishes theycould depress the star button (or any other such key) on the keypad orspeak “new selection” to pick an alternative listening station orpreference.

The present invention has the following features and advantages:

-   -   (1) This invention provides multiple channels available per user        listening preference, e.g. classical, jazz, news, headlines, pop        rock, or silence for the hold time experience.    -   (2) This invention enables the user to continue to “change the        channel” while on hold    -   (3) The invention permits two methods of user selection: either        keypad or speech recognition.    -   (4) This invention provides a method of preference retention,        based on caller identification value.    -   (5) This invention provides a method whereby subsequent calls to        that service telephone number would remember the user preference        and play the stated preference.

The present invention would reduce a caller's level of agitation andmake the “on hold” time a little more enjoyable.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an example of an index of listening options from which callersplace on hold can select.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating the basic steps in the method ofthe present invention, which a caller is placed, on hold.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a caller preference database containinglistening options for callers that are placed on hold.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an alternate implementation of themethod of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a second alternate implementationof the method of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a detailed implementation of themethod of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a method and system that provides listeningoptions for callers waiting on hold to complete the call. In thismethod, once the caller has made a call and it is necessary to put thecaller on hold, the caller will receive a list of listening options fromwhich to choose. Referring to FIG. 1, shown is an example of a list oflistening options. The list of listening options can very with eachparticular configuration of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the method of the invention is activated by thereceipt of a call and the placing of the caller in an on hold state instep 10. During this step, first there is a determination of whether itis necessary to place the incoming call in an on-hold state. If it isnot necessary to place the call in the on-hold state, the call will gothrough, the caller will be connected and the caller can conductwhatever business that is the subject of the call. However, aspreviously mentioned, in many instances, it is necessary to place theincoming call in an on-hold state. After the caller is placed in anon-hold (wait) state, step 11 identifies the telephone number of thecaller. This identification step can be by any conventional calleridentification means. Step 12 determines whether the number of the callis in the listener database. In this step, the process performs a searchof listener preference database to determine if the number from whichthe call is places is caller has an existing listening preference.

Referring to FIG. 3, shown is an example of a listener preferencedatabase. This database contains a list of previous callers that havemade listening selections while the caller was in the on hold state. Thepresent invention recorded each selection and stored the selection alongwith the caller's telephone number for reference when that caller makesanother call and it is necessary to place that caller on hold. In thedatabase shown in FIG. 3, the telephone numbers are stored based on thearea code of the telephone number. In this example, there are four areacodes with numbers stored under each code. Each entry in the databasecomprises a record 20, with fields 21, 22 and 23. Field 21 can be a linkto the area code of the telephone number. Field 22 is the actualtelephone number and field 23 is the listener preference from the priorcalls. As shown, the listener preference can be a code for one of theoptions shown FIG. 1.

Referring again to FIG. 2, if the determination in step 12 is that thecaller number is listen in the database, the process moves to step 13where that preference for that caller is retrieved from field 23 of therecord for that telephone number and played for the particular caller.If in step 12, the determination is that the caller's number is not inthe database, the process moves to step 14 where the caller is presentedwith a set of listening options such as those listed in FIG. 1. In thisstep 14, the caller will receive a list of listening options. The callercan speak or input his/her listening preference into the telephone. Step15 will detect the listening preference selected by the caller. At thispoint, step 16 will record the caller selection. In step 17, the callerpreference is stored in the database. This preference information willinclude the telephone number of the caller and the caller preference.Following the storing of the information in step 17, the process movesto step 13 where the selected material is played for the caller.

FIG. 4 shows an alternate embodiment of the present invention in whichthe caller wants to change his/her listening preference. In some ofthese instances, the caller already has a preference stored in thelistener database. In other cases, the caller may want to change acurrent selection after listening to that selection for some period oftime. In this method, the first steps 30, 31 and 32 are the same assteps 10, 11 and 12 in FIG. 2. In addition, steps 33, 34, 35 and 36 arethe same as steps 14, 15, 16 and 17. In step 32, if the determination isthat the caller has a listening preference in the database, the processwill retrieve that preference, step 37. However, during the retrieval ofthat selection, if the caller desires to change the listeningpreference, the caller can activate a change selection request bypressing the star key on the telephone. Other identified keys can alsoservice in this capacity. The pressing of the star key will send asignal to the process in step 38 that the caller wants to change thecurrent selection. Once the process receives the prompt indicating thatthe caller wants to change selections, the process returns to step 33.

In this step 33, the caller will receive/hear a list/menu of listeningoptions. Step 34 will detect the listening preference selected by thecaller. Step 35 will record the caller selection. In step 36, the callerpreference is stored in the database. Following the storing of theinformation in step 36, the process moves to step 39 where the selectedmaterial is played for the caller.

Referring to FIG. 5, shown is an alternate method of the present, whichexpands out the methods described in FIGS. 3 and 4. For the purpose ofdiscussion, the method of FIG. 5 modifies FIG. 4 to show initial stepsin the method of the invention. In step 40, the receipt of a telephonecall activates the process. Step 41 determines whether it is necessaryto place the call in a hold state. This determination is based onwhether there is a customer service person currently available to answerthe received call. If a customer service person is available, the callis sent to that available person and this process ends in step 42. If acustomer service person is not available to answer the call, the processmoves to step 43, which determines the average hold time for a callerbefore someone can answer their call. Current techniques can determinethe average hold time for a caller. Also the average hold time can berecalculated at predetermined intervals. At this point, the caller isinformed of the hold time and is given the option to hear informationfrom various subject categories, step 44. If the caller desires to heara listening option, the process moves to step 31 of FIG. 4 or 11 in FIG.3 and proceed as previously discussed.

In addition to the listening options shown in FIG. 1, after step 43, thecaller may have the option to remain in the queue, but hang up and becalled back when there is a customer service representative to answerthe call. This option could be made available, if the hold time was overa minimum threshold of time. Another option could be silence, if thecaller does not want to listen to anything. This silence option can beincluded in the list of options in FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a detailed description of the steps of the present invention.As shown in step 50, the customer places a call to the service providerand is placed in an on hold queue. Step 51 identifies the telephonenumber of the caller. The identified number is checked against thenumbers in the customer database in step 52. This check will serve todetermine if the customer has previously called the service provider instep 53. If the caller has previously called, the process begins playingthe customers preferred listening selection over the customer's receiverin step 54. If in step 53, there is determination that the customer hasnot made a previous call to the service provider, step 55 presents thecustomer with listening options from FIG. 1. These options are spokenover the telephone receiver with the customer having the ability tochange the option. Once the options are presented to the customer, step56 gives the customer the option to select one of the listeningcategories. In this diagram, the listening options are “News Headlines”56 a, “Financial News” 56 b, “Local Weather” 56 c or “Country Music” 56d. In step 57, the customer makes a selection. At this point, step 58sends this selection to the customer database. Since this call is thecustomer's first call, this selection is recorded in the customerdatabase in the record with the customer telephone number. As shown inboxes 59 and 60, the listening option selection process can be a ToneIdentification system 59 or a Speech Recognition system 60. As with theprevious embodiments, step 61 begins to play the selection over thereceiver of the caller's telephone.

It is important to note that while the present invention has beendescribed in the context of a fully functioning data processing system,those skilled in the art will appreciate that the processes of thepresent invention are capable of being distributed in the form ofinstructions in a computer readable medium and a variety of other forms,regardless of the particular type of medium used to carry out thedistribution. Examples of computer readable media include media such asEPROM, ROM, tape, paper, floppy disc, hard disk drive, RAM, and CD-ROMsand transmission-type of media, such as digital and analogcommunications links.

Having thus described the invention, what we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is set forth in the following claims.

1. A method for providing listening activity for a caller placed in ahold queue during a telephone call comprising the steps of: creating acaller preference database containing a listing of different callers andthe listening preference of each caller; identifying the telephonenumber of the call; determining whether the identified telephone numberis in a caller database containing caller telephone number and listeningpreferences corresponding to each telephone number contained in thedatabase; playing a listening activity in the receiver of the callerbased on the caller selection.
 2. The method as described in claim 1further comprising before said playing step, the step of: presenting thecaller with a set of listening options from which to choose; andrecording the caller selection in the caller database.
 3. The method asdescribed in claim 2 wherein said listening options presenting step isperform when there is a determination that the caller telephone numberis not is the caller database.
 4. The method as described in claim 2wherein said recording step further comprises the steps of creating arecord for each identified telephone number, the record comprisingfields for the telephone number area code, the telephone number and apreferred listening option.
 5. The method as described in claim 1further comprising after there has been a determination that theidentified number is currently contained in the database, the steps of:receiving a prompt from the caller to change the current listeningselection of the caller; presenting the set of listening options to thecaller; and recording the new selection by the caller in the databasefor that caller telephone number.
 6. The method as described in claim 1further comprising before said identifying step, the steps of:determining whether it is necessary to place the caller in a hold queue;when the determination is that it is necessary to place the caller inthe hold queue, determining the average hold time for a caller in thequeue; and determining whether the caller desires to hear a listeningoption while in the queue.
 7. The method as described in claim 6 furthercomprising when there is a determination that the caller desires to hearlistening options the identifying, determining and playing steps ofclaim
 1. 8. A computer program product in a computer readable medium forproviding listening activity for a caller placed in a hold queue duringa telephone call comprising of: instructions for identifying thetelephone number of the call; instructions for determining whether theidentified telephone number is in a caller database containing callertelephone number and listening preferences corresponding to eachtelephone number contained in the database; instructions for playing alistening activity in the receiver of the caller based on the callerselection.
 9. The computer program product as described in claim 8further comprising before said playing instructions, instructions for:presenting the caller with a set of listening options from which tochoose; and recording the caller selection in the caller database. 10.The computer program product as described in claim 9 wherein saidlistening options presenting instructions are executed when there is adetermination that the caller telephone number is not is the callerdatabase.
 11. The computer program product as described in claim 2wherein said recording instructions further comprise instructions forcreating a record for each identified telephone number, the recordcomprising fields for the telephone number area code, the telephonenumber and a preferred listening option.
 12. The computer programproduct as described in claim 8 further comprising after there has beena determination that the identified number is currently contained in thedatabase, instructions for: receiving a prompt from the caller to changethe current listening selection of the caller; presenting the set oflistening options to the caller; and recording the new selection by thecaller in the database for that caller telephone number.
 13. Thecomputer program product as described in claim 8 further comprisingbefore said identifying instructions: instructions for determiningwhether it is necessary to place the caller in a hold queue;instructions for when the determination is that it is necessary to placethe caller in the hold queue, determining the average hold time for acaller in the queue; and instructions for determining whether the callerdesires to hear a listening option while in the queue.
 14. The computerprogram product as described in claim 13 further comprising when thereis a determination that the caller desires to hear listening options theidentifying, determining and playing instructions of claim
 9. 15. Amethod for creating a caller preference database for use in determiningthe listening preference of a caller comprising the steps of: receivinga call; identifying the telephone number of the call; creating a recordfor each identified telephone number, the record comprising fields forthe telephone number area code, the telephone number and the listeningpreference of the caller; recording a listening option selected by thecaller in the caller listening preference field of the created record;storing the record in the caller record in the database; and repeatingabove said steps for each newly identified caller telephone number. 16.The method as described in claim 15 further comprising the step ofcreating a set of sub-directories in the caller database base on thearea code of the caller telephone number.
 17. The method as described inclaim 16 further comprises the step of creating a sub-directory recordfor the area code and a pointer in each record for an identifiedtelephone number that points to the record of the corresponding areacode.